Working Families Ramp Up Grassroots Events in Support of Employee Free Choice Act

Across the country, working people are ramping up their grassroots
efforts to show the importance of passing the Employee Free Choice Act
for a balanced economic recovery. Over the next few weeks, thousands of
workers will participate in dozens of rallies, letter writing parties,
roundtables, and other events to show their outrage against our
corporate-dominated economy and the broad public support for the
Employee Free Choice Act.

Grassroots activists will be talking
to their communities and their Representatives through letters, phone
calls, and emails communicating the importance of passing the Employee
Free Choice Act in states from California to Maine, Florida to Alaska.
In Pennsylvania, workers are calling and writing Sen. Specter to ask
why he turned his back on working people; they are gathering to greet
him with their questions when he arrives home from Washington this
week.

In the coming days, workers will gather in public meeting
places and town squares to express outrage at corporations for creating
the house-of-cards economy and calling for an economy that works for
everyone through health care reform and the Employee Free Choice Act.

Next
week, union members will hold roundtables with small business owners,
showing that many small businesses recognize that workers' freedom to
bargain means stronger communities and consumers. Owners will discuss
the corporate campaign and their opposition to the campaign being waged.

"My
business is a family shop. We all work together because if the business
is successful, then the employees are very successful, said Jim
O'Malley, owner of Print & Copy Center in Pittsburgh, Penn. "We
have common goals that we work towards."

"At this moment, our
economy urgently needs for workers to regain the freedom to bargain
with their employers," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. "Working
people across the country are joining with community members to call on
passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, vital legislation that will
restore workers' freedom to form and join unions and bargain for fair
wages and better benefits without intimidation."

Religious,
civil rights, and women's groups will also continue to join union
members in calling for the Employee Free Choice Act, pointing out that
when women and people of color are in unions, they earn better wages
and benefits and are much less likely to experience discrimination.

The
actions lead up to the two weeks of Congressional recess, where workers
and community members will meet with Representatives and deliver
hand-written cards showing support for this vital legislation.